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Former Ernest Ward Middle School Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling Over $50,000
November 7, 2024
A former Ernest Ward Middle School bookkeeper has been charged with embezzling over $50,000 in cash from the school and its organizations.
Lindsey Dawn Kelley, age 41 of McDavid, was released on a $100,000 bond after being charged with grand theft, scheme to defraud and false entry in books of business, all felonies. According to investigators, she stole cash collected by school organizations over a 13-month period.
Kelley quit her bookkeeping job at the school in Walnut Hill before the first week of school following her arrest on unrelated credit card fraud and grand theft charges in which a relative was the alleged victim. That prompted Principal Tyvanna Boulanger to request that the Escambia County School District complete an internal audit of the school’s bookkeeping and financial records.
According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Kelly collected $52,278.98 in cash from various organizations that was stolen between July 1, 2023, and August 30, 2024:
- Change Fund-$300
- FFA-$4,047.50
- Honor Society – $310
- Shop- $650
- Volleyball/basketball – $4,001.65
- Cheer – $28,192.34
- SGA/track – $850
- Football – $200
- Band – $1,840
- Library/yearbook/drama – $4,670.49
- Culinary-$865
- 6th grade- $1,786
- 8th grade – $2,756
- 7th grade- $1,810
Related story: What Happens To Ernest Ward Groups Missing Thousands Of Dollars?
“It should be noted that this amount does not reflect any money stolen from Earnest Ward Middle School prior to July 1, 2023,” the arrest report states.
The report states that in the school year before Kelley was hired as a bookkeeper at EWMS, the school deposited $82,475.24 in cash for school organizations. The report notes after Kelly was hired as school finance specialist in August 2020, cash deposits were as follow:
- 2019-2020 – $46,736.28 cash deposited
- 2020-2021 – $23,270.08 cash deposited
- 2021-2022 – $29,782.46 cash deposited
- 2022-2023 – $18,733.64 cash deposited
- 2023-2024 -No Cash Deposited
The school district told investigators that Kelley was audited in the 2022-2023 school year and the audit noted Kelley had a “lack of organization led to several issues, the most severe of which was the inability to locate entire records for deposits and receipts.” Kelley has not been charged with any school related crime that occurred prior to July 1, 2023.
Kelley was interviewed by ECSO investigators on October 23, 2024.
“One at a time, we spoke with teachers/sponsors of the different school organizations who had given cash to Kelley during the previous school year for their organizations,” a investigator reported. “There was zero cash deposited to the school’s bank account during the 2023-2024 school year so all cash that was given to Kelley is now missing.”
“Immediately upon beginning the interview, Kelley stated that she took the money. Kelley didn’t know the amount of money that she had taken because she had taken it over time and didn’t keep track of it,” the ECSO report states. Deputies said the money was deposited in her credit union account or added to a GreenDot account.
“I advised Kelley of the amounts stolen from each team/organization and that the total amount stolen for the 2023-2024 school year adds up to $52,278.98,” the investigator wrote in his report. “While surprised, Kelley did not disagree with that amount and advised that if that was the amount that had been determined, then that was the amount that she had stolen. When asked about the balance statements for the teams/organizations, she admitted to editing them on an Adobe program so that they wouldn’t discover the low balances of the accounts. At the conclusion of the interview, Kelley advised that she was remorseful and would never do something like this again.”
In addition, school administration alleged that all documents such as purchase orders, money collected forms, along with receiving invoices and documents were missing.
The sheriff’s office investigation is continuing.
“At this time, it is unclear how much money was stolen during S/Kelley’s entire employment at Earnest Ward Middle School,” according to the arrest report.
Comments
36 Responses to “Former Ernest Ward Middle School Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling Over $50,000”
@ BIL, she is only owning up because she got caught.
@ Sheila, I’m not willing to help give back to the kids that someone stole. Some of that money she stole could have been a little of what I had already given to help out the kids. Let her get a job and garnish her wages to pay that money back. Let her work as hard as those kids did and their parents working to raise their families and help the kids out.
@Bill or Bl you don’t get it she’s branded as a thief and a thief and a liar go hand in hand oh by the way I’m not branded as a thief and no record and where were you when she needed money and decided to steal oh wait she’s a good person and nice and sweet oh right she steals 50000 dollars from children oh yeah you are here now bill pay it back for her you won’t be considered bad just stupid!!!!
Fred, there are so many more degrees worse than stealing from children. Was that a genuine statement or satirical?
Bill T. so by your reasoning you are willing to be judged by every wrong thing you’ve ever done? She is going to pay for her mistakes but they do not define her as your mistakes should not define you. What should define her is how she carries on after this and the level she goes to to make up for it because you don’t know her or why she did this. It wasnt for herself, trust me. Its not an excuse by any means but I know she is a better person than me and yourself. Felonious activity and all.
My pseudonym is not “Bill” by the way. It’s “BIL”. As in Brother-In-Law.
Sheila,
She was stealing from children. There are very few degrees on the scale further from “perfect” than that.
Her sentance should 10 TIMES what she stole
Hey LookingAtYou, please do, matter of fact why don’t you go to EW and ask them about me then call the authorities.!
When you finish your task please come back and comment your findings!!
@Bill. It’s called don’t steal and you won’t have this problem. NOT we forgive you for stealing money and you knew it was wrong. I don’t care how nice and kind a person is if they steal they are a thief and remember a liar and a thief go hand in hand
Everyone defending this person talks about how kind and loving she is, but we’re glazing over the fact that she is also facing charges of fraudulent use of a credit card and grand theft. So, not only did she steal from the kids, but she stole from her uncle who was in rehab. She obviously doesn’t care about the impact her poor decisions have on her victims. Taking away opportunities from children, denying them the funds they need to enjoy the programs they are apart of. Then stealing from a family member during a vulnerable time when he needed to be focused on getting better himself, instead he has to worry about all the money that was taken from him. People that are defending her by saying, “She admitted she did wrong and will pay for what she did.” How is she going to do that when she stole 50K? Obviously she was having money issues. How do you think she’ll come up with the money? She wont. More than likely, our tax dollars will be used to settle the lost funds, instead of that money going back into the community.
Stop defending criminals because they were nice to you.
the double standard in these comments are more sad then the actual crime smh
Track down every cent she spent and gave away. This is just totally disgusting, she violated the trust that was given her, she must spend some serious prison time at Stark…
Lindsey I am praying for you. You got family and friends that’s praying for you and that loves you. Remember GOD loves you more.
Never trust everyone 100%.. unless you just don’t care…. no matter who it is.
She made bad choices. She is going to do everything in her power to make it right and she is owning up to what she has done. How many of you can say the same? If you actually know her you know that she is one of the kindest and most caring people you will ever meet. I hope those calling for “10 years in prison” or something outlandish like it see how ridiculous that sounds. In our family we don’t make excuses for the wrong things that we do. We explain our actions, pay the consequences accordingly and do the best we can to learn from it and become better. Just as she is doing now.
*I love you Linny and I will be here for you no matter what*
Sheila, I do believe it is worth the authorities looking into your past to ensure you wasn’t apart of the corruption. Condoning this behavior is a wild take for sure. Anyone with morals and ethics would not be defending this wrong. Being a thief does indeed make her a pretty low down person. Period. “What’s done is done.” Indeed it is. And yes, she’s having to pay. Which half her payment is the entire community being exposed to the fact of the type of lying, stealing human she is.
And you’re right. We’re all imperfect. But not all of us are cold hearted humans that steal money from literal children either. Also, none of us “perfect people” should have to give the money back. A lot of us infact have the money the first time fundraisers. The repayment needs to come from this woman in anyway possible. If she has to work McDonalds forever to pay her debt so be it. Ya know because “what’s done is done”. Will be calling the school tomorrow to inform them they potentially have a second employee that needs to be looking in.
Well we have a lot of perfect people commenting about an individual you don’t know!
I was a co-worker of hers and something went wrong somewhere! Yes, it was wrong, but she is not a horrible person! She will have to pay for her mistakes! As for the kids and the money it’s a very bad that they worked so hard but what’s done is done!
How many of you perfect people will be willing to help give back go the kids??????
Peggy, love or low pay do not enter into the equation. She should face all the consequences. Further, an audit should be able to determine how much exactly she stole. I expect full restitution. Her remorse does not compel me to seek lienency. And, she is so bad at it, she can’t even tell how much she stole, so she was not working hard to cover her tracks. The school district audit should have been completed to a standard that every penny could be accounted for. I worked in a business with over 100 vendors, hundreds of expenses, hundreds of sources of revenue, we balanced to the penny every month. It is called accounting for a reason
1 Timothy 6…love of money…greed…the root of all evil…sadly she’s not the only one…nothing changes if nothing changes…think about it
If convicted make her pay it back w/ interest plus 45000 more after 10 years in prison
I suspect the same behavior is common for Peggy. Who else would take up for a low life unless they were dealing in the same gutter? How can either of them live with themselves? Peggy, God, nor any decent person would not condone this behavior, no matter the pay.
as a school kid i don’t gaf that she stole the money, times are tough!! she was held accountable leave her alone #freeyoumyheart
This is sad. It is happening throughout both counties, Escambia and Santa Rosa.
WOW! Peggy you are why people like this think this is ok. You have got some serious issues if you don’t care that this person stole thousands of dollars from school kids.
For Peggy: Really. I understand that you love her. But she has admitted she stole the money. She must be held accountable. Yes, teachers need to be paid fairly.
@Peggy, you say God bless as you condone her stealing $50000. You are what is wrong with this country.
@Peggy, or maybe, JUST MAYBE, she could get another just instead of stealing from children. You are clearly just as gross as her. I hope you never get a job working with kids.
This story makes me cry for all that could have been done for the deserving students. when money is so hard to come by. How can anyone getting paid to do a job steal funds from the organization? I can’t find any sympathy for this woman.
I don’t care, I love ms.Kelley! Pay teachers/teacher assistants more!
God bless
Shame on her! But also…why did it take 13 months to discover this? Do they not have ANY internal controls? This situation should have been easily avoided.
To be honest, Twinkies are more expensive.
100 percent went to food !
How did Cheer not recognize its account missing $28k+?
Maybe this one won’t just get freed from charges. Something has got to be done or it just keeps happening.
STEALING from kids who’ve worked so hard to raise funds for their school organizations is TERRIBLE.
This woman has broken a Sacred Trust to be honest and a caretaker of the students, parents, school in managing financial matters.
Hopefully, this will be fully investigated and she will have to answer to the charges in a court of law. Paying back the stolen monies is something she must do.
Kids, this is an unfortunate incident…..
Someone needs to audit the district’s auditors if they’re not finding this out for years. Someone has some explaining to do.